


The scent of apples

by redsnake05



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Foreshadowing, Gen, Minor Character(s), Minor Violence, Talking Animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 15:58:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4672646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsnake05/pseuds/redsnake05
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lilygloves, the Talking Mole, takes a break from digging the holes for the apple orchard at Cair Paravel and discovers something unusual moving in the soil, disturbed by the scent of apples.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The scent of apples

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Heliopause](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliopause/gifts).



Lilygloves supposed there was a sort of pride in being the chief mole. He was called in to consult over the new orchard for Cair Paravel, which was exactly the sort of important thing that a chief ought to do. The sad truth, however, was that he was rather bored by all the talk of soil types and apple varieties, and just wanted to dig the holes with rather less tiresome negotiation about it. He would have been quite happy to just turn up, dig the holes in the places marked, and go home again. 

On the first day, he got to dig about three holes, two of which had been planted and filled, and one of which was declared too large and necessitated rearranging the entire placement of all the trees. Lilygloves waited patiently as the Kings and Queens, the fauns, the dryads, and even Pomona argued. Possibly he should have flung himself into the fray with learned arguments about the consistency of the soil, but he just dug himself a quiet little run out of the way and caught a few worms for a snack. 

The battle over varieties was still raging above his head. He could hear the humans shifting around, the compression of the earth under their feet clear to him. The movements of the dryads were less obvious, mostly coming from the way the tree roots hummed in sympathy with their shifts in weight and place. Lilygloves loved to be underground, with the soft, damp earth around him, and the heavy, recycled air warm and close. He stretched out his paws and sighed contentedly. 

His attention was caught by another type of movement. It was a sinuous sort of a slither, rather like the movement of a worm with the striking menace of a scorpion. Lilygloves followed it moving in the soil, winding and twisting back and forth, roused by something. He listened to the hiss of dry topsoil, the softer squelch of the clay mixed into the loam, and the creature twining through both.

He realised it was the apples they were reacting too, as all their coils and arcs moved away from the fresh-buried roots. He could sense they were moving faster than they normally would; their movements had an edge of panic and a lack of efficiency, and their scent was sharper now as they came closer. He prepared himself; the creature was larger than any worm, but his hunter's instincts were awake now and he would catch this apple-hating creature to see what it was.

The soil above broke and the creature tumbled down into his run. Lilygloves struck, sleek and sharp here in his accustomed lair, and caught the creature fair behind it's flattened head, teeth sinking in and claws holding it down. The rest of the creature fell in, long body writhing to be free, thrashing back and forth for purchase in the yielding dirt as Lilygloves planted his back paws firmly and dug his claws in, pressing the weight of his body behind the pressure of his teeth.

His venom slowly worked, subduing but not paralysing the creature. It's gyrations were now twitches, and he slowly worked backwards, dragging the creature with him. It rattled and hissed, but Lilygloves was determined to make it see the light and find out what it was. He backed out of his temporary run, biting harder to drag the unwilling creature forward onto the green grass.

"Snake!" he heard one of the humans cry, and a thunder of feet seemed to rouse the beast to new fury. Lilywhite braced his paws again and clung on, as, somewhere around, a tremendous commotion of screaming and trampling broke out. 

There was a clatter and a whoosh, and the thud of a dwarvish axe into soil, and the creature stilled in Lilygloves's front paws. He cautiously spat it out and backed away, before being scooped up by one of the Queens and rapturously stroked and hugged. 

"Lilygloves!" she exclaimed. "Look at it, that creature is bigger than you! How brave you are!"

Lilygloves didn't mind being brave, but he did rather want to take a look at this odd creature that had moved so mysteriously. 

"If your majesty could put me down," he said, "I should very much like to have a look at it."

He was immediately restored to the ground as someone in the background called for a shovel and some revivifying refreshments, and cautiously sniffed the dead thing on the grass.

It was snake shaped, at least, green, and not much smaller than the smooth green snake sometimes found the warmer south. It had moved differently, though, he was sure of it, and had an air of heaviness to it that Lilygloves only associated with humans. There was something wrong about it, though he couldn't put his paw on what it was. If it had been a snake, he would have known, and would have left it alone, as harmless.

"If Lilygloves has finished inspecting his kill, I'll put it out in a ditch," said the dwarf who'd put an axe through it, now armed with a shovel.

"Burn it," said Lilygloves. "Burn it, and scatter the ashes, for this was no snake, at least not completely."

He couldn't see anyone's faces, of course, but he could tell his suggestion wasn't being taken seriously. 

"Do whatever you want, then," he said. "But if you leave this one's flesh and blood lying around, there will come a day when you'll be sorry."

A bustle and a frenzy heralded the arrival of the refreshments. Lilygloves was scooped into a chair next to the other Queen - he squinted up at her carefully, yes, he was sure it was Queen Susan - and a discreet clatter told him the body had been removed. 

Lilygloves accepted the praise heaped on him for his daring underground, but half his mind was on the unfamiliar writhe of that serpentine body. He would stay and dig, for an apple orchard was always useful, but then he'd be back to his own run and his own land, and the familiar contortions of worms under his paws and in his teeth. He knew them, and loved this, but he'd tasted some sinister future today, and he wanted nothing of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is a minor enough character for you! I loved the opportunity to tell a story of hunting and heroism in an unlikely form. Moles are fierce predators underground, after all.


End file.
